


It's A Long Story

by delicatelyglitterywriter



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Reunions, Torture, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-08-12 01:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20163463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicatelyglitterywriter/pseuds/delicatelyglitterywriter
Summary: The Doctor follows a distress call which leads her to the trenches of a recently abandoned battlefield.





	1. The Battlefield

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyZoZo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyZoZo/gifts).

> **Content warning:** mentions of death, war, kidnapping
> 
> i've only watched a handful of classic era episodes with romana, so sorry if she's a bit ooc. i tried my best.

The battlefield was empty, aside from the wounded left for dead. The Doctor set her jaw firmly. No matter how many times she saw this kind of thing, it never got any easier. She was glad Yaz, Ryan, and Graham were having some time back home. She’d hate for them to see this. 

She looked down at the tracker in her hand, seeing the blinking yellow light indicating she was only about twenty feet from whoever had sent the distress call. But looking back out over the chaos, she couldn’t see anyone she recognised. Unless it was someone she didn’t know, and it was one of those signals the TARDIS sometimes intercepted? She supposed it was possible, though unlikely. The distress call seemed to have been intended for the TARDIS, and not any passing ship.

The Doctor moved, having had enough thought and reflection. She slid down the hill as best she could, carefully stepping over some bodies at the bottom. She forced herself to not look at them. It would hurt too much to. She made her way through the dead and dying, keeping her eyes fixed on her tracker. She came to one lot of trenches and clambered down the ladder, the tracker indicating the person who had sent the signal was there.

Her feet had barely touched the ground, when she saw who had sent the message, lying bound and unmoving, a foot away. 

“Romana?” The Doctor dropped the tracker and ran to her, scooping her up in her arms. “Romana?”

Romana didn’t answer, and the Doctor felt panic rise in her chest. Her hand reflexively went to Romana’s neck, checking for a pulse. She let out a small sigh of relief when she felt a single heartbeat. Only one of her hearts was working, and it was weak, but it was working nonetheless. But it wouldn’t stay that way for long, not with the high levels of radiation left behind from the battle to finish off the dead and dying. 

Fumbling, the Doctor reached into her pocket and pulled out her sonic, using it to free Romana. 

“Oh, Romana, how did you get caught up in this?” she wondered aloud as she pushed the loosened ropes from Romana’s wrists. “Come on, you.”

Struggling under the weight, the Doctor dragged Romana from the trenches, carrying her back across the battlefield, up the hill, and along the path into the forest, where she’d parked the TARDIS. She’d only just made it up the hill when she felt Romana stop breathing. She looked down in alarm. She put Romana down, again feeling for her pulse. Terror gripped her, tears burning her eyes when she felt none.

“No, no, no, no, no, don’t do this, Romana,” she whispered, shaking her hands a couple of times before drawing some regeneration energy out, into them. She rested her hands against Romana’s chest. She just needed to get her hearts started again, that was it. She’d never tried starting a heart again with regeneration energy, but she hoped with all of hers that it was possible.

“Come on, come on, come on,” she muttered, watching regeneration energy flow from her hands into Romana. “Please work. Come  _ on _ …”

All at once, she felt two hard thuds against her hands, before Romana’s hearts fell back into their usual rhythm. Relief flooded her system. The Doctor breathed a laugh, a tear finally falling from the well in her eyes, and she dropped her head to where her hands had been a second earlier. She righted herself, tilting her head up to the sky.

“Thank you,” she whispered to no one in particular. The universe, the TIme Lords, and anyone who had had any say in the fact that what she had just done, worked. She scooped Romana up once again, continuing their journey back to the TARDIS. They made it back without any further incidents. 

The Doctor made a beeline for the Zero Room, and laid Romana down on the bed. Now lying down, without any pressing emergencies, the Doctor could get a proper look at Romana. She looked just the same as when she had last seen her. Same long, blonde hair, looking just like Princess Astra. The Doctor smiled to herself, remembering when she had scolded Romana for choosing that body. Or at least, she had tried to. She remembered not trying awfully hard to get Romana to change her mind. 

Her eyes dropped to Romana’s wrists. Her skin was chafed and raw, and the Doctor felt sick to her stomach. She knew Romana well enough to know she wouldn’t even try to struggle if her hands were bound; not unless she knew for sure she could get out. She wouldn’t needlessly hurt herself. She was too clever for that. 

Her hearts ached for Romana. She wished she could have arrived sooner, and maybe prevented Romana from ever being captured (or was she kidnapped?) in the first place. Simultaneously, her chest filled with rage against those who had hurt her. She’d lived too long, and seen too much hurt, to let it pass. They’d either tied the ropes too tight, or manhandled Romana - or perhaps they had done both - and then left her for dead in the trenches. The Doctor had a hard enough time seeing regular people being mistreated in such a manner, but it was made worse when it was one of her friends, someone she cared deeply for. 

She stopped herself before she could get too angry. Romana didn’t need her anger; she needed compassion. 

The Doctor looked back to Romana’s face and allowed herself to smile. Now that she was safe, Romana looked as if she were just sleeping, not dying. She felt a rush of affection for Romana, and her smile grew wider. It had been millennia since she’d last seen Romana; she had thought she’d never see her again. Even if it was under dire circumstances, the Doctor was immensely happy to see her again. The last of her anger melted away, and she picked up Romana’s hand in her own and pressed a kiss to it. 

The Doctor was tempted to watch Romana sleep, but she knew she couldn’t stay still for very long. Sighing, she laid Romana’s hand back down, giving it a couple of pats.

“I’ll be back later,” she promised quietly. “Just going to go do some work on the TARDIS. Rest well.”

She returned to the control room, where she quickly found her way under the console, and began to fiddle around with loose, dangling wires, and bits and bobs. She played and fiddled around until the TARDIS beeped at her from above. 

“Mmm?” she thought. “What is it?”

The TARDIS didn’t answer her. She looked up and asked again, but she still got no response. She sighed.

“Fine, if that’s the way you want it,” she muttered aloud, crawling out from under the console. She brushed off her trousers before resting her hands flat against the console. “What do you want to say?”

The TARDIS whirred gently. 

_ Romana’s waking up _ .

The Doctor smiled, giving the console a couple of pats. “Thanks, Old Girl.”

She hurried down the hallway, almost running, to the Zero Room. She couldn’t wait to talk to Romana again. Outside the door she paused, and composed herself before she entered. Romana was still lying down, not quite awake, but stirring. She whimpered softly, and the Doctor went to her, again taking her hand in her own.

Romana blinked awake, and she groaned, her free hand coming up to nurse her head.

“Ow.”

“Very succinct explanation of your current state,” the Doctor said teasingly. “Well done.”

Romana’s eyes turned to her, and she jerked her hand back in alarm. The Doctor let her hand drop back down to her side.

“Who are you?” Romana asked, struggling to sit up. “Where am I?”

The Doctor moved forward, gently, yet forcefully, pushing Romana back down, speaking before Romana had a chance to feel terrified at being restrained yet again.

“The Doctor, and you’re in the Zero Room on the TARDIS. You’re safe, Romana. It’s okay.”

Romana visibly relaxed. “Doctor?”

The Doctor lifted her hands from Romana’s shoulders, giving her a little wave. “Hello.”

Romana broke into a grin. “You’ve regenerated.”

Out of habit, the Doctor looked down at her body. “Yeah. Nearly 10 times since we last met.”

“10?” Romana raised her eyebrows. “But you were on your fourth when we were last together. You can’t have regenerated more than 9 times. Is this your last body?”

The Doctor opened her mouth to explain, but closed it again when she realised just how much had happened since the last time they saw each other.

“No,” she answered eventually. “It’s not my last. But it’s a long story. A  _ really _ long story.”

Romana considered the Doctor. “Just how old are you now, Doctor?”

The Doctor smiled fondly at her. She was always one to ask the right questions. 

“About 3000 years now? Give or take. What about you? You’d be, what, 400 now?”

“Closer to 500,” Romana said with a smile. “3000 is a long time. Is Gallifrey still around?”

The Doctor licked her lips and shook her head, keeping her gaze fixed firmly on the floor. “No. Not really.”

“Oh, stop it with the cryptic answers,” Romana scolded, though her tone held no venom. “What do you mean ‘not really’?”

“Well, uh, long story short, Gallifrey is frozen in time in a pocket universe.”

“Why?”

The Doctor sighed again. “I wish you didn’t have to ask me that.”

“Why not? Is the answer sad?”

The Doctor nodded shortly, and she heard Romana sigh. In the next minute, she was being held by Romana. She returned the hug, holding onto Romana as if she might lose her if she ever let go.

“You should really be lying down,” the Doctor murmured into her shoulder. “You got hurt.”

“So did you.”

The Doctor huffed a laugh, squeezing her eyes shut. She took a few deep breaths, and then stayed in the hug a little longer, before insisting Romana at least sit down again. The Doctor sat next to her. 

“So, how exactly did you end up tied up in the middle of a war zone?” the Doctor asked. Romana gave her a cheeky half-smile.

“It’s a long story,” she murmured. The Doctor smiled back, linking her fingers with Romana’s. 

“Well, I’m not going anywhere.”

Romana nodded, staring at her shoes as they kicked back and forth. “Well, it began about three days ago.”


	2. The Bell Knight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is how Romana ended up on that battlefield

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content warning:** torture, needles, mentions of blood, discussions of war and murder

Romana, or the Bell Knight as she was better known by the people on this planet, rode through the town, ringing her cowbell as she went. People filtered out of their houses as she went, not needing to be told to evacuate twice. Ever since the war had started, and the soldiers began ransacking the towns and killing the people, Romana had taken on the role of warning civilians of oncoming soldiers, giving them time to evacuate. She was known by everyone - she was famous to civilians as a hero, and infamous to soldiers as a nuisance. 

It didn’t take long for the town to evacuate, heading into the woods, but she hung back a few minutes, to make sure everyone had gotten out. Once satisfied, she turned and rode eastward, through the eastern woods and towards the mountains.

She cantered along, determined to make it to the mountains by nightfall. Romana heard the sound of a twig snapping, somewhere off the path, and she slowed her horse to a halt, slowly scanning the woods around her. It could have been just an animal, but the crack was too loud to have been caused by the footfall of an animal. Her hand hovered over the pistol she kept in her boot, just for emergencies.

Another twig snapped, on the other side of her, and her head whipped around, but she saw nothing. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and made up her mind to get out of there as fast as she could. She coaxed her horse’s head up, from where it had dropped to chew on some undergrowth, and moved her foot to kick the horse’s rear, when her company revealed themselves. A soldier stepped out from the tree, rifle raised.

“Dismount,” he commanded. Romana glanced around again, to see tens of other soldiers emerging from their hiding places, their guns also trained on her. She considered her options. Even if she were fast enough to her pistol, there would be no way she could fire off a shot before they did. There would be no way she could take off fast enough on her horse. Her only option was to do as she was told, so that’s what she did.

She climbed down off her horse, and raised her hands in surrender once her feet hit the ground. One of the soldiers behind her hit the horse’s rear, sending it off. She watched sadly as it went. She’d really liked that horse. Her attention was drawn back to the soldiers when the one who had spoken to her, spoke again.

“Mask.”

“Huh?”

“Your mask. Take it off.”

Romana pulled her lips into a thin line beneath the mask. She wore a mask which covered most of her face in her escapades as the Bell Knight, to protect her identity. Not breaking eye contact with the soldier, she reached up and undid the clasp at the back of her head, letting the mask tumble to the ground. The soldier narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Romana.

“Hat, too.”

Sighing, Romana lifted the hat from her head and let it fall to the ground. All around her, soldiers gasped and gawked. 

“A  _ girl _ ,” she heard one spit. “The Bell Knight is a  _ girl _ .”

Romana bit back a snappish response, mindful of how many guns were pointed at her. The soldier who had first spoken snapped at the one who had expressed his shock and disgust.

“Shut it. Search her.”

Romana held her breath as she was patted down, her pockets emptied. The soldiers didn’t find much - she didn’t carry much on her. She liked to travel light, and didn’t take valuable items with her, in case she lost them. All the soldiers managed to find was a small, blank notepad, a pocket watch, and a toothbrush. Sonic, of course. The soldiers seemed disgruntled at how little they found. Romana slowly breathed out as the soldiers backed away from her.

They handed the items over to their commanding officer - the first soldier she had seen. The commanding officer quickly discovered the secret to her toothbrush. 

“What is it?” he demanded. “A weapon? A teleport? A communication device?”

Romana didn’t answer. Technically speaking it was all 3, but she didn’t tell them that. The commanding officer stalked over to her and waved the toothbrush around in her face. 

“What is it? Answer me, girl!”

Romana simply stared at him, remaining stubbornly silent. Without warning, his fist connected with her stomach, knocking the wind from her lungs, and sending her doubling over, onto her knees. She caught herself with her hands, coughed twice, and gulped in a big breath of air. Her back and throat ached as she continued to take deep breaths. 

She felt the commanding officer crouch down in front of her, and she kept her eyes firmly fixed on his boots. 

“Look at me,” he ordered, his voice dangerously low. A shiver raced down Romana’s spine and she slowly raised her head to meet his gaze. He held up the toothbrush again.

“Tell me what it is.  _ Now _ .”

Romana hesitated. He raised his hand, and Romana flinched away, spitting out the first lie she could think of.

“It’s a toy!” His hand froze in the air. Romana let out a small breath of relief. “It’s a toy. It just makes a buzzing sound for fun.”

He lowered his hand again. Romana slowly turned back to look at him again.

“Why would you carry a toy with you?”

“Everyone needs something to entertain them,” Romana reasoned. The commanding officer considered her a moment, before surprising everyone by bursting into laughter.

“The captain will love you,” he said, standing up. He addressed his men. “Get her up, bind her.”

Romana didn’t resist as she was hauled to her feet and her hands yanked roughly behind her back, bound tightly with coarse rope. She tried not to wince as the knot was tied. At the order of the commanding officer, Romana was marched away.

* * *

The trenches were cramped and dirty and smelled of death. It was a disgustingly familiar scent. Romana wondered how many more times she’d have to smell it before the end of the war finally came. Briefly, she wondered if they’d ever stop fighting. 

She was drawn from her thoughts, wincing as she was shoved roughly to her knees, the ropes digging painfully into her skin. The soldier who had spoken to her in the forest went to retrieve the captain. She was left alone with a single soldier, his rifle casually resting against her shoulder.

“Can I please have my stuff back?” she asked carefully. She turned her head as best she could to try and look at him. “I assume you have it, yes?”

Her head was pushed back around with the barrel of the rifle.

“Why should I?” he sneered at her, keeping his rifle pressed against the side of her face. 

“Because they’re harmless things,” Romana reasoned. “And I doubt you’d have much use for them.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because a soldier can’t possibly have a use for a toy toothbrush. You can’t even brush your teeth with it. A notepad is useless without a pencil, and as for the watch, well, I can’t imagine you’d have a need for timekeeping, since your captain tells you when to go and come, and eat and sleep and all that.”

Even though she couldn’t see him, she could imagine the soldier shrugging.

“Don’t move a muscle while I put them back in your pocket,” he instructed harshly. “And don’t tell  _ anyone  _ I gave you back your stuff.”

“I promise.”

* * *

The captain was a large man with broad shoulders, who reminded Romana very much of a Great Vampire. She gulped, leaning back as far as the rifle in her back would allow. He had a mildly impressed look on his face.

“You didn’t tell me the Bell Knight was a girl, lieutenant,” he said, examining her. She looked away. 

“Didn’t think it was relevant, sir.”

The captain said something to the lieutenant that Romana couldn’t hear, and then he addressed the soldier guarding Romana.

“Bring her.”

Romana was hauled to her feet and pushed deeper into the trenches. Tears stung her eyes as she was constantly jostled, causing the painfully tight ropes to rub against her wrists. She wondered how long it would take before she started bleeding, or if she was already bleeding. She was almost relieved when she was pushed into a sitting position on a wooden box, out of the way of the troops going about their business. No more marching meant she could keep her hands completely still. 

The captain pulled a barrel in front of him and plonked himself down on it. “What’s your name, then, lass?”

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

To her surprise, the captain laughed. “Very well, then. I’m Captain Robert Henrooth. Lovely to make your acquaintance, Miss…?”

“Smith,” Romana said, picking the first name she thought of. “Joanna Smith.”

“Well, Miss Smith, apologies for the rope, but you’ve caused us a fair bit of grief. Made it difficult for us to do our jobs and whatnot.” Romana’s lips twitched upwards into a smug smirk. “What I want to know is: why? Why have you gone galavanting around and intervening?”

He spat the last word out like bad couscous. Romana’s smirk faded, replaced with her best imitation of one of the Doctor’s disapproving looks. 

“I don’t like war,” she said simply. “And I especially don’t like wars where the soldiers go out of their way to hurt innocent people.”

“They’re the enemy.”

“Defenseless and terrified women and children are your enemy?”

“They’re related to the enemy, that makes them the enemy.”

“So, you go around hurting and killing the families of the soldiers who you’re meant to be fighting?”

Romana cried out when he brought his hand down across her cheek. 

“They attacked our families first,” he hissed, his lips so close to her ear they almost touched her skin. “Eye for an eye. Daughter for a daughter.”

Romana’s heart tightened in anguish. This wasn’t war; it was a bunch of angry men trying to outdo each other. 

“Violence never ends violence,” Romana said quietly. “It only extends it. You can’t fight fire with fire.”

“We  _ will _ win this war,” the Captain sneered, backing away enough for Romana to turn to face him again. She considered him for a long moment before speaking again.

“Do you even remember what you’re fighting for?” The Captain looked taken aback, and Romana continued. “This war has been going on 47 years - I’ve been counting. Your father probably fought and died in this same war, perhaps even your grandfather. It’s been going on for generations. Do any of you actually remember the reason the war started?”

The Captain appeared to flail for an answer before he squared his jaw and abruptly stood. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is you’ve been interfering, and it’s time you were stopped.”

“So, what?” Romana questioned bravely. “You’re going to kill me?”

“Eventually,” the Captain said, baring his teeth at her in a predatory grin. “First, you’ll suffer for every enemy you’ve helped escaped.”

Romana gulped again, her hearts speeding up. The Captain turned his back to retrieve something, and Romana acted quickly. Gritting her teeth and taking a deep breath, she twisted herself around in one smooth motion, reached into her pocket and slipped out the sonic toothbrush and watch, and untwisted herself before the Captain caught her.

He dumped a pile of needles onto the barrel he’d previously been sitting on. Romana froze, and blood ran cold. The Captain laughed at her frightened expression. He picked up the first needle. The action seemed to unstick Romana, and she worked quickly, opening the pocket watch and twisting the hands to four o’clock, and then pointed the sonic at the watch, waiting for the opportune moment to press the button.

“This is GN-427,” the Captain said, tapping the needle against his finger several times. 

He stepped up beside Romana, gently brushing her hair back. Romana shuddered at the touch. He ran his fingers through her hair, before curling his fingers through a chunk of it and yanking it, forcing her head to the side to expose her bare neck. Her breath caught in her throat. 

“Not sure what it does, but it hurts like hell. Ready?”

Romana bit back a plea. The war had been going on for too long for soldiers to have an interest in mercy, and to ask them for it would be an insult. She tightened her grip around the toothbrush and watch in her hands and grit her teeth.

“No.”

The Captain laughed again and pushed the needle into her neck. At the same time a scream ripped from Romana’s throat, she pressed the button on her sonic toothbrush.

* * *

Romana couldn’t tell how long it had been since the Captain started torturing her. All she knew was that her throat ached from screaming and her eyes were cried dry, and that she was laying on the ground, rather than sitting on the box. Her whole body hurt, and she was unsure what that wet feeling was. She knew she was dying, probably with no hope of regeneration, not with the ocean of chemicals the Captain had pumped into her system.

Her only consolation was that her toothbrush and watch were still loosely held in her hands. The watch would be sending out her distress signal, and hopefully help would arrive in time.

The Captain knelt down beside her, with one last needle. Romana sighed, defeated. 

“I have to make tracks,” he said quietly. “One more for the road, yeah? Don’t worry, this one will keep you alive for a while. You know, make sure you don’t die too quickly.”

Romana squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head once. The Captain pushed her hair back from where it covered her neck and pushed the last needle in. Romana whimpered as the contents entered her bloodstream. It hurt as much as any of the other concoctions, but she was unable to scream anymore.

“Farewell, Miss Smith, Bell Knight,” the Captain taunted. He stood and led his army away. 

Romana tried to move, her instinct telling her to go and get help. She had her distress call, yes, but there was no guarantee it would reach its destination, and no guarantee the recipient would even show up. But, try as she might, her body wouldn’t cooperate with her brain. She could do nothing except lay there, dying, in the dirt. 

She forced herself to stay awake for as long as she could, knowing that if she fell asleep, there was a very good chance she wouldn’t wake up again. She held onto hope that her distress call had worked and that help was on its way. She only had to keep her eyes open until she was rescued. Usually, that wouldn’t be an issue - she only needed about 12 hours of sleep per month - but in pain and dying, she found it significantly harder.

She spent some time thinking about if this was kind of like what humans felt like when they were tired. Not so much the pain and dying part, but the almost irresistible urge to just close her eyes and let sleep take her. She’d never really been tired before. She just slept whenever she had a free hour to spare, there was no real set bedtime. 

When she got bored thinking about humans and their sleeping patterns, she occupied herself with some mental puzzles and riddles. When she ran out, she started thinking about all her adventures with the Doctor. Even in her state, she smiled. She did miss travelling with the Doctor, but adventure could be found anywhere, she just had to look. Her adventure as the Bell Knight had been a good one, and she hoped it wasn’t over. Her smile disappeared again, and she couldn’t quite get it back.

Many more hours passed, and Romana thought every thought she could possibly think of to keep her mind occupied, and keep herself away. But as the second dawn since she’d been left there to die peeked over the horizon, Romana simply couldn’t keep her eyes open. A single tear slipped out as her eyes fluttered shut.

“Please find me, Doctor,” she whispered, praying to whatever deity or entity may have been out there. Finally, Romana succumbed to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i do intend to continue this so don't ask


	3. The Job Is Never Done

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Romana put a stop to the war, and part ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content warning:** discussions of war, torture, and killing, guns

Romana was crying by the time she’d finished recounting her tale. The Doctor swallowed thickly, her hearts aching for Romana. She climbed up onto the bed and pulled Romana into a big bear hug. Romana rested her head against the Doctor’s shoulder and cried, while the Doctor cradled her head and whispered words of comfort to her.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t get there sooner,” the Doctor murmured when Romana’s sobs subsided. Romana shook her head once. 

“You came, that’s enough,” Romana said, her voice thick with tears. She sniffled, and out of her pocket, the Doctor promptly produced a handkerchief. Roamana smiled as she accepted it. “That’s new.”

“It’s not mine,” the Doctor admitted. “Belongs to Graham. He left it behind by accident.”

“Graham?” Romana tilted her head back to look at the Doctor’s face. “Is that the name of your current companion?”

“One of them, yeah,” the Doctor said, smiling fondly, thinking of them. “There’s Graham, and his grandson, Ryan, and then there’s Yaz.”

If Romana had any thoughts of her travelling with three people now, she didn’t voice them. Instead, she just smiled.

“I’m glad you’re not alone.”

“Me too.”

The two lapsed into a comfortable silence. Romana occasionally swiped at her nose with the hanky. The Doctor’s eyes intermittently flicked down to Romana’s wrists, pleased when she saw them becoming less red, healing quickly. The whole time, they remained on the bed, the Doctor holding Romana.

Romana was the first to break the silence.

“Doctor, what happened to Gallifrey?”

The Doctor tensed, only for a few seconds before she forced herself to relax, but it was long enough that Romana noticed. Romana pulled herself upright, out of the hug. 

“Doctor?”

The Doctor looked down at her lap, fidgeting with her fingers. 

“Doctor?” Romana prompted again. The Doctor sighed, looking back up at Romana. She deserved an explanation, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to give.

“Do you remember the Time War?”

Romana thought a minute and then nodded. “That was the one with the Daleks, right? I think I ended up here shortly after it began, yes?”

“Yeah, that’s right. It, uh, was really long, and really bad, and it came to a point where the Daleks were about to wipe out Gallifrey, and the Time Lords were willing to destroy the entire universe to defeat the Daleks. The weapons they were prepared to unleash…”

The Doctor trailed off with a shudder. Her eyes dropped to her lap and she took a deep breath before continuing, but when she tried to speak again, the words got caught in her throat. 

“And you ended the war, didn’t you?” Romana asked evenly, her voice carefully devoid of emotion. The Doctor nodded shortly. “How?”

The Doctor looked down and away from Romana.

“I almost destroyed everything,” the Doctor confessed, still remembering the guilt she had felt as a warrior making that decision, even if it hadn’t been what had really happened. “I took the Moment - a weapon with a conscience - to blow up Gallifrey to end the war. I’d defeat the Daleks, but at the price of my own people.”

Romana didn’t speak for a long time, and the Doctor waited patiently. 

“And?” Romana asked eventually, her voice happier than the Doctor had expected. The Doctor looked up.

“And?”

“And what happened next?” Romana pressed. “You mentioned earlier that Gallifrey was in a pocket universe, and that couldn’t happen if Gallifrey was destroyed. Plus, you used an ‘almost’ in your retelling, which means you didn’t. So, go on, tell me how you were clever this time.”

The Doctor broke into a grin. “Very clever, Romana.”

“That I am,” Romana agreed, mirroring the Doctor’s grin. She propped herself up on her knees. “So, go on with your story, then.”

The Doctor opened her mouth and closed it again. She tilted her head. Explaining this bit was always tricky, so she usually opted for ‘timey wimey’, but she knew Romana would rather a scientific and detailed explanation. It had been too long since she’d spoken to someone who was as smart as she was.

“Okay, so basically what happened is that the Moment personified itself in a hologram only visible to the one of me who was a warrior and opened a time fissure, to show him the future of what would happen if he went through with detonating the weapon. That time fissure opened up in the time streams of both my 10th and 11th faces. All three of them ended up in the same spacetime coordinates as my 10th face, working on finding and defeating some Zygons-”

“-you crossed your own time stream? Doctor, that’s incredibly-”

“Dangerous? Yes, I know, but I do it like a champion. Now, if you’d let me get on with the story?”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Anyway, all three of them together defeated the Zygons, using a very clever plan that involved a stasis cube, but that’s kind of like a subplot here. I’ll fill you in on that adventure later. At the end of it all, my 10th and 11th faces chased my warrior self back to Gallifrey, just moments before he was going to press the button to destroy Gallifrey. There, it was my 11th face who decided that I wasn’t going to do it; that I was going to change my own past by not destroying Gallifrey.

“Then, in what I consider an unmatched brilliance, I, or, well, my warrior self, 10th and 11th faces, managed to bring all of my previous regenerations - that is faces 1 to 8, in case you were confused -  _ as well as _ my 12th face from the future, who wasn’t meant to be around at all at this point, to Gallifrey, where we all placed our TARDISes at equidistant intervals around the planet, and then all travelled at exactly the same speed to each interval - in a predetermined order so we wouldn’t crash into each other - thus freezing Gallifrey in a single moment in time, like a stasis cube, sending it to its own little pocket dimension. With Gallifrey gone, the Daleks destroyed each other in their own crossfire, and so ended the Time War, with the Daleks gone, and Gallifrey safe.”

“Impressive,” Romana said. “Not only did you manage to cross all your own time streams without destroying the universe and save Gallifrey whilst simultaneously defeating the Daleks, you managed to tell me all that in one breath!”

“What can I say?” the Doctor said, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m just brilliant like that.”

Romana laughed, and the Doctor felt her hearts melt. Romana’s smile was particularly gorgeous, and she really couldn’t help but feel a wave of affection each time Romana smile.

“Not more brilliant than me, though,” Romana said teasingly. 

“No,” the Doctor agreed sincerely. “No one’s more brilliant than you, Romana.”

Romana’s smile dropped, replaced with a look of deep appreciation and affection.

“Doctor…”

“I mean it, Romana. You were always cleverer than me. I was just always too proud to admit it when we travelled together. I wish I’d told you, though. I wish you’d known how much I admired and appreciated you.”

Romana grinned shyly, tucking her hair behind her ear. The Doctor raised her hand to cup Romana’s face. 

“You are brilliant, Romana,” the Doctor repeated emphatically. Romana ducked her head, blushing at the compliment. That’s what the Doctor had always liked best about Romana. It was that she was so humble in her brilliance. She never went around wanting everyone to see how clever she was, like the Doctor had been (and admittedly still was) very fond of doing. She had always been perfectly content being a quiet genius, knowing her value from the inside, rather than shouting at others to validate her.

Romana stood, pulling the Doctor from her thoughts. The Doctor grabbed her hands.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Back to be the Bell Knight,” Romana said. “There are still people out there who need me.”

“But you were just captured and tortured, and left for dead!”

“Yes, and I feel better now. Now, please let go, Doctor. There are still people to save.”

“You might not be so lucky next time you’re captured,” the Doctor tried to reason. “They could kill you on sight, or I might not be there on time, or at all next time, or-”

“Then I’ll die knowing I’ve done all I could,” Romana said, tugging gently at her hands. The Doctor didn’t let go. “Doctor, there could be children out there right now, dying.”

“Yes, but why tell them to run away forever instead of dealing with the problem at its roots: ending the war?”

“That was my initial reaction, too,” Romana said. “But it’s incredibly difficult to get men who are angry at each other to sit down and talk, especially with a nonexistent government.”

“ _ What _ ? Why is there no government?”

“Why do you think? They all died in the early days of the war. Parliament split and the opposing parties turned on each other and killed each other. Battle of the Senate, we call it. The smaller, wiser parties fled, but I doubt they’d be willing to rebuild the government. That is, assuming any survived.”

“So, to recap, we somehow have to find a way to get some very angry men to sit down and talk to each other, without the support of a government because the government doesn’t exist, whilst trying to prevent those who aren’t at the meeting from killing anymore innocent lives.”

“Yep. I tried to do it at the start, but they wouldn’t listen to a random woman begging them not to fight.”

The Doctor grinned. “Well, it’s a good thing there are two of us, then, isn’t it?”

Romana grinned back at her. “What’s your plan, Doctor?”

The Doctor chuckled gleefully. “Oh, Romana, you’re really going to like this one.”

* * *

Romana stood alone in the box which held the speaker’s chair. The room was empty, except for her. She twisted her fingers nervously. It was a brilliant plan, there was no doubt about that, but this first part was scary.

“You’re the Bell Knight,” she murmured to herself, shaking her head. “Act like it.”

She took a deep breath, lifted her chin, stood up straight and rolled her shoulders back. She was dressed in her Bell Knight costume, and had her pistol resting against her thigh, just in case. The men were coming unarmed. The Doctor was in the next room. She had nothing to fear. Except for the multitude of things that could go wrong. 

She abruptly shook her head, as if to shake the doubts from her mind. She would be  _ fine _ . Everything would work out okay, and if they didn’t, she and the Doctor would make them. She drew in another deep breath when she heard soldiers beginning to file in. The red curtain which separated the two sides and the speaker’s chair obscured her view. 

The curtain was all that remained of parliamentary tradition; it was always drawn during meetings and debates where both the major opposing parties were present, in an attempt to make the parliament more impartial by eliminating bias based on appearance. It had worked quite well for the people of this planet, but during the Battle of the Senate, it had been pushed past, and then pushed back, allowing the major parties to attack each other. 

Romana waited until she knew everyone was seated, before she yanked the cord to pull the curtain back, allowing them to see each other, and her.

“It’s the Bell Knight!” shouted someone from the side that had captured and tortured her. “But I thought she was dead!”

That shout set off a series of shouts and jeers, and men clambering out of their seats, heading towards the centre. Romana drew her pistol and fired three shots into the ceiling. Everyone froze.

“Enough!” she barked angrily. “Sit down!”

When no one moved, she added, “ _ Now _ !”

The men timidly returned to their seats, and Romana waited until they were all seated and silent again before she lowered her pistol. 

“Alright, Doctor, you’re up.”

The Doctor stalked in from a side door, to the centre of the room, where she could be seen by everyone. She gave everyone a stern glare, and then turned to the right side of the room, where Romana’s captors sat.

“The Bell Knight is a personal friend of mine,” the Doctor began. “And you captured tortured, and nearly killed her. If I hadn’t gotten there in time, she’d be dead. Lucky for you I was, because, believe me, you do  _ not _ want to see me when you’re the reason someone I love dies.”

The men flinched back at the anger in her voice. None of them even tried to utter an apology. From behind her, on the other side of the room, a particularly brave (or was he reckless?) soldier called out, making fun of the right side of the room. The Doctor whirled around, pointing an accusatory finger at them.

“And  _ you _ lot are no better! You’re part of the war that birthed the Bell Knight in the first place. You don’t have  _ any _ moral high ground, so don’t you  _ dare _ act like you do.”

The left side of the room fell silent, too. The Doctor visibly relaxed a little bit.

“Good. Now that we’ve established that I’m very angry at all of you, let’s get started. I’m the Doctor, and the Bell Knight there, her name is really Romana, and we’re here to stop you fighting this ridiculous and pointless war of yours.”

“And why should we listen to you?” someone from the left side asked bitterly.

“Good question. Have you lot ever heard of the Daleks?” Every single head in the room nodded. “Are you scared of them?”

Again, everyone nodded. The Doctor bared her teeth in a sinister grin.

“I’m what the Daleks are scared of. Is that a good enough reason?”

Everyone nodded yet again. The Doctor dropped her smile. 

“Excellent. So, who wants to go first? Who wants to start negotiations?”

There was a long pause, before someone on the right shouted out. “They killed my daughter!”

“They killed my wife!” someone from the left retorted. It took only a couple of seconds for it to escalate into a shouting match, the men again clambering out of their seats to go at each other. The Doctor acted quickly, whipping out her sonic and holding it up to emit a loud, painful buzz that brought the shouting to an abrupt end. The Doctor released the button. The buzzing stopped.

“I believe my friend told you to sit down,” she reminded them sternly. Slowly, they sank back down into their seats. “Better. So, you kill his daughter, and you retaliate by killing his wife, and then you retaliate that retaliation by killing his sister, and so on and so forth. Eye for an eye. Family for a family. Now, Romana, Bell Knight, how long has this been going on?”

“Forty seven years,” Romana said from the speaker’s box. 

“Forty seven years,” the Doctor repeated for the men. “That’s a long war. I’ll bet your fathers, and maybe even grandfathers, fought and died in this same war-”

“-Doctor you’re stealing my words,” Romana said from behind her.

“Yes, but they’re good words,” the Doctor said, waving a dismissive hand at her. “Now, hush and don’t interrupt my epic speech, please and thank you. Anyway, I was saying, several generations have fought in this war. Do any of you actually remember why this war started in the first place? Go on, anyone who knows why.”

The Doctor looked around, waiting for someone to raise their hand, or speak up, but no one did. 

“See? No one can remember! What’s the point of fighting a war if you haven’t any idea what you’re fighting for?”

“We’re fighting for revenge!” someone from the right shouted. A cheer raised up from the right side. The Doctor buzzed her sonic again before the situation could escalate again. The cheer stopped immediately.

“So, what? You’re just going to keep on killing each other’s families, until there’s no one else left to kill? What happens then? All the women, all the children, gone. What happens then? Go on, give me an answer.”

The Doctor turned as she had before, looking for someone to give her an answer. Every single soldier had his head bowed, not daring to speak. The Doctor grew agitated in the tense silence. She slammed a fist against the box holding the speaker’s chair. Everyone, including Romana, flinched.

“Answer me!” she demanded. No one spoke for a painfully long minute. Romana held her breath. Finally, someone who sounded young - too young to be fighting in a war - spoke, his voice small and timid, but it echoed around the silent room like a shout.

“We don’t know,” he admitted. The Doctor softened almost immediately, and Romana let out her breath.

“And there it is,” the Doctor said softly. “You’ve all been fighting this war so long, you don’t know any other way. You only know how to kill other people, and mothers only know to keep their boys alive long enough so that they can continue the fight to protect them and their daughters. You’re all living in pain and fear, too scared to consider what it might be like if you just stopped. If you both just agreed to stop killing each other’s families. What kind of way is that to live?”

None of the men answered. The Doctor turned to Romana. 

“Romana, would you bring our new friends in?” 

Romana went to do as she was told without a word. The Doctor turned back to the soldiers, addressing the soldiers on the right side of the room.

“Who has the highest rank among you?”

Everyone pointed to a man sitting up the back, third from the left. A Captain, judging by his stripes. He looked questioningly at the Doctor.

“Stand, but don’t move.”

She instructed the highest ranking man on the other side to do the same - also a Captain, by coincidence. Romana reentered the room, about fifty people in tow. A series of gasps were heard from the soldiers as they watched their mothers, sisters, daughters, and young sons trail into the room. They stopped in the centre of the room, all looking to the Doctor for their next instruction.

“Captains, which two are your eldest daughters?” 

“Little girl with the red hair and blue coat,” the Captain on the right side said, clearly struggling not to rush to his family. It was only Romana pointing her pistol at him in warning that kept him in place.

“Uh, brown curly hair, wearing the long black coat.”

“Wait, he’s your dad?” the redhead girl - Matilda - asked the other girl, Jessica, in disbelief.

“You have  _ him _ for a dad?” Jessica shot back in equal disbelief. The two looked at each other and collapsed into giggles, holding onto each other to support themselves. The Doctor smiled. 

“What’s going on?” the Captain on the left side demanded. 

“Well, you see, with families displaced and forced further and farther east, with fewer survivors each move, your families were bound to find each other eventually and join with each other for a better chance to survive. It just so happened that your two families had found each other, and your daughters became best friends.”

“We even made friendship bracelets!” Jessica told her dad excitedly, holding up her wrist. “From some scraps we found. See?”

The two captains were too stunned to speak. It was a different soldier who spoke instead.

“You rigged this,” he sneered. “You went to several towns and picked up survivors and brought them together and I’ll bet this is the first time they’ve met!”

Both Jessica and Matilda began to shout at him, outraged at the accusation. The Doctor hushed them.

“Whether this is rigged or not is irrelevant,” she said. “Though it’s not. What  _ is _ relevant is that all you’re doing is fighting to keep your families alive. But what happens when you kill your daughter’s, or sister’s, or mother’s best friend? You’ll lose the only thing you have left. You’ll lose your family, both literally and metaphorically.”

The Doctor paused while her words sunk in. The two Captains slowly sat back down, of their own accord. 

“So,” the Doctor said after a silence. “Who wants to start the negotiations?”

* * *

A couple of hours and several snacks later, Romana and the Doctor headed back to her TARDIS. Negotiations had been successful; both sides had agreed to stop fighting, and work together to reconstruct their society, for the sake of their families. Both the Doctor and Romana were as pleased as punch, and the Doctor was particularly happy her plan had worked so well. 

She stopped at the door to her TARDIS and turned around, seeing Romana standing a few feet back. She tilted her head.

“You coming?”

Romana shook her head. “No, I’m needed here.”

“But the war is over! The Bell Knight isn’t needed anymore!”

Romana chuckled, shaking her head. “Doctor, you know better than anyone that the job is never done. Just because you managed to stop one war on one planet, there are hundreds of other planets out there that have problems, who need help.”

“This is a small universe,” the Doctor tried, though she knew she was grasping at straws. “It wouldn’t take that long to sort out all the problems on all the planets.”

Romana shook her head again, her smile never faltering. “Really, Doctor. How many times have you revisited planets because its inhabitants keep creating new problems? As I said: our work is never done.”

The Doctor deflated. Romana was right, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. 

“Just one more trip?” she begged. “For old time’s sake?”

Romana shook her head a third time, her smile finally disappearing. “You know as well as I do that ‘one more trip’ would never end. It would turn into two, then three, then before you know it, it’s one hundred, or one thousand. Plus, I know how hard it is to travel between universes. If I left with you, I’d never come back. I can’t leave.”

The Doctor hung her head in defeat. “I know.”

In the next moment, she found herself being hugged by Romana. She held back just as tightly, squeezing her eyes shut. 

“I hate goodbyes,” she whispered. “I don’t want to say goodbye.”

“I know,” Romana said, breaking the hug. She placed her hands over the Doctor’s hearts. “But it’s never really goodbye, is it? Just because we don’t see each other again, doesn’t mean we leave each other. We’re always there, in blood and in heart. I’ll always be there, in blood and in heart. You just have to remember me.”

“What can be remembered can be brought back,” the Doctor mused, placing her own hands over Romana’s. Romana smiled a brave smile, though the Doctor could tell she was trying not to cry, too.

“Just like that,” Romana agreed. The Doctor swept Romana up in one last hug, and held on until Romana forced her away. The Doctor cleared her throat and shuffled awkwardly.

“Well then,” Romana said, smoothing down her coat. “Take care, Doctor.”

The Doctor managed a half smile. “I’ll try. You keep on being brilliant, Romana.”

Romana smiled at her. “When am I never?”

The Doctor grinned and let out a laugh. She tapped the TARDIS twice and then stepped inside. Romana stood and watched, waiting for it to dematerialise. She jumped when the Doctor poked her head back out a second later.

“By the way,” she said happily, holding out the scarf she had worn as her 4th self, “keep this. It’s cold here, and I always found it to be incredibly useful in the past.”

“But Doctor, that’s yours!” Romana said, trying to push it back. The Doctor wrinkled her nose.

“No it’s not, don’t be silly, Romana. I’d never give you my beloved scarf! I had the TARDIS make a copy! The original is still inside. Honestly, for you to think I’d give you the original…”

Romana laughed loudly, accepting the scarf. 

“Also, this!” the Doctor said, thrusting a piece of paper towards her. “It has the TARDIS phone number on it. Now, it works all across the universe, but if I got the wiring correct - or get, I haven’t quite done it yet - it should be able to pick up phone calls from this universe. So we can talk whenever!”

Romana accepted it gratefully. “Thank you, Doctor.”

The Doctor flashed a grin at her. “That’s that, then. Don’t get into too much trouble.”

“Like you, you mean?” she teased.

“Oi!”

Romana laughed, and the Doctor laughed along with her. 

“Well then. Off I go.”

“Yeah. See you later.”

The Doctor gave her a final wave before disappearing inside again, and a minute later, the TARDIS was gone from Romana’s world once again. Romana looked down at the phone number in her hand. Smiling, she shook her head and shoved it into her pocket. She doubted the Doctor would ever get that phone working properly, but she’d hold onto it. Just in case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we're done. tied up in a nice neat little bow. hope you liked :)

**Author's Note:**

> i did have another idea for this that was light and funny and fluffier, but i chose the angsty one becuase i Could. 
> 
> idk if i'll write more. i do want to, and i might, but i can't promise anything. we'll see how it goes.


End file.
